So a couple of weeks back I got a call from my main man up in Dublin. He had a client who does some regular show on the BBC over in the UK, an Indian immigration lawyer. Who was coming into town and needed some Irish footage collected, could we meet over breakfast? Why not, truth be told it is in my DNA to leave no stone unturned.
So I set off to Dublin yearning for the full Irish as promised. Carton House was the venue for a top of the line scram, sans mushrooms in the company of Surina the very pleasant producer and Southalls finest legal eagle, Harjaps.
A few names were dropped and it was apparent that in front of the lens was Harjaps forte, and he was not stuck for a few words. They would need us to capture the film and they would arrange the video editing on return.
So it was a milk run, two of us rock up and pick them at the airport, over to a Dublin office shoot a few GBs (gigabytes) of footage and home before Coronation Street. The date was set, the tickets were booked, June 3.
June 2 1700 hours, not a word since the guys forwarded their AerLingus booking. they had to be coming they booked the tickets! No reply to the email on the previous Friday! They are starting to pull the proverbial!
So I flung off a ‘shit or get off the pot’ email at 1715. If there was no word by 1930 we were not in a position to help out. 1718 phone call. Thunderbirds are go! should have held tough look like we were bailing.
Next am bound for Dublin at 0730, pick up at the airport, can’t say who was growling louder me or Dermot? Touched base in Maynooth to say is this was a disaster someone was paying for our excursion. Invoice guaranteed we trundled on safein the knowledge we were getting our day rate! Digital Mercenaries
Picked up the guys at terminal two in Dublin airport, into the city, chatting en route to the office was pleasant but the schedule ambitious to say the least.
So I was roadie, Dermot was as usual camera. Donkeyed up the gear all six stories. Nice conference room which wá crowned by a nespresso machine that you could dock the space shuttle with. Straight out of Star Trek, coffee strength all calibrated et all.
I won’t kid you when I said the schedule was ambitious. Sorely missing our key player Grainne who always choreographs our shoot with the precession of the Seal raid to take out Bin Laden. Nervous glances shot across the room between Dermot and I.
But life never disappoints, what unfurled was poetry Tyrone’s own Seamus Heaney versus the Kipling of Southall, and I don’t mean the baker. Prose’s of the highest elegance, describing what awaited any sub continental magnate who wanted to escape the dust and heat for the damp and cold of Eire. I wanted to move here myself…but hey I was already here!
After a wonderful if a little late lunch I found myself on the hot seat enticing the aforementioned magnates here. Discussing the merits of American Foreign direct investment her and the quality life that awaits any souls who would dare to mount the Irish economic Phoenix and see where it takes them!
No doubt that there are bus loads of anxious immigrants queuing up of in the sub continent awaiting transport! Give me your tired, your poor,! Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
No for real. Our second endeavour with satellite broadcasting goes out tonight on Sky channel 793 at 1900 hours. It’s just shy of an hour of a production pieced together by a fantastic crew, superb editing and production by all involved.
Let me know who is better Austin or me?
Just to say fantastic video editing job done by Dermot